Urban Legends: Final Cut
| running time = 97 min. | country = USA | language = English | budget = $15,000,000 | gross revenue = $21,468,807 (US) $38,574,362 (Worldwide) | preceded by = Urban Legend (1998) | followed by = Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005) }} Urban Legends: Final Cut is an American horror film of the slasher genre. It is the second installment in a three-film series and follows the 1998 movie Urban Legend. It is the last film in the series to be released theatrically and is followed by the 2005 direc-to-video movie Urban Legends: Bloody Mary. Urban Legends: Final Cut was directed by John Ottman and written by Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson. It was produced by Original Film and Phoenix Pictures and released theatrically in the United States on September 22nd, 2000. The movie stars Jennifer Morrison as Amy Mayfield, Matthew Davis in the dual role of Travis and Trevor Stark, Hart Bochner as Professor Solomon, Loretta Devine as Reese Wilson, Joseph Lawrence as Graham Manning, Anson Mount as Toby and Eva Mendes as Vanessa Valdeon. The premise of the movie involves the students of a film academy who decide to create their own film based on a serial killer whose style is patterned after well-known urban legends. Plot Wikipedia entry A flight attendant attacks passengers and crew on an airplane, which turns out to be a scene in a film shooting at a film academy. As the students are preparing for their thesis films and the prestigious Hitchcock award, a student named Amy Mayfield is unsure about her thesis. But after a conversation with security guard Reese Wilson, she decides to make a film about a serial killer murdering in the fashion of urban legends. Meanwhile, a student named Lisa is drinking in a bar, when someone drugs her drink. Lisa feels dazed and prepares to leave the bar, when someone abducts her. She wakes up in a bathtub filled with ice and discovers that her kidney was removed. Attacked by her abductor, she tries to flee through the window and is decapitated in the process. Lisa is not missed as she was about to go on a trip. The next day, Amy is preparing the shooting of her thesis film but is deserted by the assigned camera man, Toby Belcher (Anson Mount), who accuses Amy of stealing his thesis idea. Shooting begins with another camera man, Simon. When Sandra, Amy's actress friend who played a victim in a scene, returns to an empty studio after forgetting her keys, she is attacked by the same killer who killed Lisa. Her friends witness her death when the material is smuggled into a sequence of takes of the scene, but discount it as another piece of acting, wondering who shot it. As there is no body and Sandra was about to go on a trip, her disappearance goes unnoticed. Travis, a friend of Amy who was depressed about having received a poor grade on his thesis film, is found to have committed suicide at the campus tower. At the funeral, Amy is offered help by Graham, a student from a prosperous Hollywood background. She refuses, wishing to make it on her own. This offends Graham, who thinks it hypocritical, as Amy grew up in Hollywood as the daughter of a famous documentary film maker before moving to Chicago. At night, Amy enters the tower and is surprised by Trevor, Travis' twin brother, who claims that Travis was murdered. The next night, Simon (Marco Hofschneider) is attacked by the killer but his screaming for help goes unnoticed as the others are doing the "midnight scream". Amy, who has heard his last scream on her head phones, is suspicious and asks Reese to review the surveillance tapes. After she has detected the assault on Simon on the tapes, she is confronted by the killer. During the ensuing chase, she loses the tapes and cannot prove her claims to a skeptical Reese. Amy now believes the claims of Trevor and meets up with him but, he still refuses to inform the police, hinting at a criminal past. The next scene to be shot involves the "Tunnel of Terror", which is set up in an old carnival ride. Sophomores Stan and Dirk are attacked and electrocuted by the killer while preparing the tunnel. Amy, who is taking a tour of the tunnel, discovers the corpses and is again confronted by the killer. She escapes again and informs the police, who attribute the deaths to accidental electrocution. Amy is comforted by Trevor. They begin having sex when Trevor suddenly stabs Amy. She wakes up and realizes that it was only a dream. Seeing a light on at the bell-tower, she decides to go there and finds her lesbian friend, Vanessa. Vanessa received a love note supposedly written by Amy, but when Amy disclaims any knowledge of such a note, the two are attacked by the killer and chased to the top of the tower, where Vanessa is captured. Meanwhile, Amy is locked in a room also containing Sandra and Simon's corpses. When Amy manages to break out, she finds Vanessa being hanged from the bell. Amy runs out of the tower into the arms of Trevor, who has found out that the thing the victims all had in common was their having worked on Travis' thesis film. They review Travis' film, which turns out to be awful, and find out that somebody placed Travis' credits onto another film. They suspect Toby, the only person working on the film left alive. They kidnap him and call in Professor Solomon to present their suspicions. However, Toby reveals that Travis faked Toby's sound credit to help him graduate admitting that he never went anywhere near Travis' film. Upset that he gave Toby "an A for nothing", Professor Solomon shoots Toby and threatens Amy and Trevor. He also reveals that he murdered Travis making it look like a suicide. He holds Trevor at gunpoint and Amy yells to him is this what he wants. He reveals feeling trapped in a teaching position since failing to win the Hitchcock award in his student days for which he blames Amy's father, who cast the deciding vote against him. He now wanted to take credit for Travis' brilliant film and use Amy's Urban Legend film to eliminate all who worked with Travis, framing Amy in the process. Graham, who has been lurking in the back all this time, hits Solomon with a chair hoping to knock him out, but is shot by the professor after saying, "It only works in movies." In the confusion, Trevor manages to disarm the professor. Solomon then threatens Trevor with a shovel while Amy gets a hold of the gun and threatens Solomon. Reese storms in, thinking Amy to be the killer, and forces her to drop the gun. Solomon accuses Amy, and calls attention to the fact that Reese saw Amy running out of the tower. As Reese never told anyone about this, she becomes suspicious and punches the professor. He tries to take her gun, but in the ensuing brawl, Reese's gun is lost amongst a pile of prop guns. Amy, Trevor, and Solomon all grab for a gun. Trevor's gun is a fake when he tries to shoot Solomon, and Solomon's gun is a fake when he tries to shoot Amy. Amy got a hold of Reese's gun but hesitates to fire. Solomon attacks her again, but she shoots him. The scene then cuts to the Hitchcock awards, where an award is posthumously given to Travis. As Trevor is about to accept the award on his late brother's behalf, a sniper appears in the rafters, only to be shot down by Reese. The altercation is then revealed to be a scene in Amy's new film "Urban Legends". It is revealed that Toby and Graham survived their attacks and are now busily working on her behalf. The final scenes show Solomon in a mental institution where, after watching Amy's film, the nurse asks him if he enjoyed the movie. He is wheeled out by a nurse, who is revealed to be Brenda Bates, the previous film's killer, saying that they have a lot in common. Wikipedia:Urban Legends: Final Cut Cast Notes & Trivia * The tagline for this film is, "Legends Never Die". * Production on Urban Legends: Final Cut began on October 29th, 1999. Principal photography concluded on December 16th, 1999. * The movie was shot entirely in Ontario, Canada. The amusement park sequences were filmed at Ontario Place in Toronto while the scenes at Trent University were shot in Peterborough. It was originally set to film on the campus of the University of Western Ontario, but was turned down by the administration because of its violent nature.IMDB; Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000); Box OfficeIMDB; Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000); Filming locations * Urban Legends: Final Cut grossed $8,505,513 over its opening weekend, ranking #1 in 2,539 theaters, averaging $3,349 per screening. In total domestic sales it grossed $21,468,807 and $17,105,555 in foreign sales. Lifetime grosses are $38,574,362. Box Office Mojo; Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) * Urban Legends: Final Cut was in theaters for fifty-nine days (8 weeks). Box Office Mojo; Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) * Urban Legends: Final Cut was nominated for a Saturn Award in 2001 for the category of Best Horror Film at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror, but lost to Final Destination. the film won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Horror/Thriller in 2001. * Urban Legends: Final Cut was released on DVD in Region 1 format by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on February 6th, 2001. Amazon.com; Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) This film is included in the Urban Legend Triple Feature DVD collection along with Urban Legend and Urban Legends: Bloody Mary. * This movie marks the directorial debut of John Ottman, who is actually a film composer. In addition to scoring this film, Ottman has also composed the scores for other horror films such as Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later and Lake Placid. * This is the first film work for screenwriter Paul Harris Boardman. Boardman also wrote the script for the 2000 direct-to-video movie Hellraiser: Inferno as well as The Exorcism of Emily Rose in 2005. * This is the first film work for screenwriter Scott Derrickson. Derrickson also wrote the script for the 2000 direct-to-video movie Hellraiser: Inferno as well as The Exorcism of Emily Rose in 2005. * Since the campus used as Alpine University in the film didn't have an actual bell tower, a 150 ft. tower was built at an estimated $150,000.00. All of the interiors were done on a separate stage and the actual bell was papier-mâché. * The ending of the film shows that Brenda Bates - the killer from Urban Legend, is still alive and well and now working as a nurse. * Urban Legends: Final Cut and Urban Legends: Bloody Mary both concluded principal shooting on December 16th - six years apart. See also External Links * * * Urban Legends: Final Cut at Wikipedia * * * * * * Urban Legends: Final Cut at the Horror Film Wiki References ----